Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1887-09-29
How we NlurcRlcd.
BY JAMES FRANKLIN Fits.

- "a Nv = @.
sometlmesSir these piping days and
nights of peace, when the loud thunder
and the vivid CLEAN of the lightning
waken me rs | slumber on nv comfort.
able mattress, and | hear the dash of the
rain, turn over and say to
myself before drifting off to sleep again,
"Wcll, thank Heaven | m not marching
with the army tonight, nor sleeping on
the ground"
And SO, doubt not, do many thou,
sands of veterans wake and reflect.
They tell me that they CANT make
the people half understand the hic
they led in the army. They say that
the more they think Of it the stranger
it seems to themselves. I think | UNI
derstand the feeling. The experience
was so strange, that 1t is hard now to
make it seem real. Comrade Ben Crown
in shield, of the Massachusetts, Cavalry
writes to me that he has learned Ger.
man since the close of the war, and that
now he always drcan's.M Dutch about
itjust as if it were too queer for our
own tongue.
| cannot hope to convey an adequate
idea of what soldiers in the field suf-
frred, to the people who only know
about war as the subject Of some high
flown history, illustrated with all kinds
of impossible pictures. | will not try
to do it. | will merely try to quicken
the recollection of those comrades who
served with the regiments that did the
marching and the fighting, us to what
they suffered while the army they were
attached to was moving about, getting
ready to fight.
Here we are time, five clock Il. m,
the dawn ola blistering July day; place
any where in the South The fields
acres of them, are covered with little
dog tents" enough to shelter in poor
kind of way thirty thousand soldiers.
! If you are awake at this hour you will
hear Il bugle-notc then another, amp
another; then the distant rattle and
scream of fife and drum. drawing near.
er and nearer rs each martial band
takes up the "reyeille," till all the
camps are astlr and alive.
There is a loud murmcr everywhere
it is the First Sergeauts calling the roll
of the company. This done, innumer-
able small fires break forth IN every Ill
rection. The soldiers are cooking their
breakfast; they are boiling their coffee,
to be partaken of ouS of the tin cup
that each man carries they are frying
their bacon, if they are lucky enough
to have it: they are eating their "hard
tack,' which they always have. With
this business quickly dispatched, the
men smoke as they fa!! into ranks the
stall officers about here and there ; the
companies file out into the road or upou
the field, as the line of march may be
columns Of reg iments, brigades, division
are formed and the day 5 march begins.
1t will be a twenty.milc march, and
last till night.
"Not Il difficult thing some brisk
young athlete observers. Il have walk.
ed farther than that in day"
Have you? Well, suppose you try it
as these soldiers do it. Put IL sixteen
pound muskct over your shoulder.
Hang Il cartridge box over your hips
loaded with forty rounds Of fixed anu
milton. Sling Oh haversack fill with
peck OF cooked rations. Fold your
wool blanket, strap them over your
shoulder. Add your canteen full of
water. Here you have anywhere be-
tween sixty and eighty pounds weight.
Qou wouldn't like this, young fellow,
would you, on one OF your pedestrian
tours
Moreover, the man who thinks that
there is no ditference'in easily walking
at will along the green roadside, and
marching in a column in the middle
of a dusty road, with man before him
behind him, and on one or both sides
Of HIM, had better try both ways be
fore forming his opinion.
Our column moves on-cavally at
the front, artillery in the intervals, in
fantry strung out at the route step wa
CONS at the rear, all toiIing on. In the
first hour you may near talk, jokes,
speculations about the campaign, etc.
But the sun mounts higher and blazes